I still love the Cavalier! And it really is nearly a toss up between Cavalier and Undead Hunter. But I'm leaning towards Undead Hunter as the more useful kit partly because at those very low levels, when your resources and magic are still scarce, the Undead Hunter provides a huge boost. I currently have two parties going, one group has both a Cavalier and an Undead Hunter. Based on their scores, I would expect the Cavalier to be the stronger of the two. But the Undead Hunter just rocks the early game. By the time we get to Dragon's Eye, I expect Magic items and buffing magic to play a bigger role. But early on, Undead Hunter is clearly the way to go.
Their Aura is a little lost in the number of AoE debuff spells in this game, especially when all of those aren't limited to 1 per rest.
There aren't that many Mages to poison. And poison on all attacks for 1 round isn't really that big in the scheme of things, especially when this game lets nearly everyone be a Fighter and deal huge amounts of damage anyway.
I guess with parties that are less min/maxed, Blackguard abilities are going to stand out (like they did in BG) but when you have Figher/Mages, Fighter/Clerics, Ranger/Clerics, Fighter/Thieves, Fighter/Druids beside you, another debuff, a 1 round damage buff? Yeah... not really that impressive compared to a permanent bonus damage buff to one of the most common enemies in the game.
And I guess whatever the Cavalier is going to be good against... not really
Personally I'd go with UH > Blackguard > Paladin > Cavalier (because no ranged weapon, and the bonuses rarely come into play, even considering what they would work on, just too rare) > Inquisitor (take a Fighter instead, and this isn't because Fighters are good. But because Inquisitors will play like Fighters pretty much the entire game)
One of the things I like about Undead Hunter is that they don't lose out on too much of what a vanilla Paladin has, but get those extra bonuses against a very common enemy type, on top of immunities to 2 status effects they frequently use. In BG2 for example, you didn't NEED an Undead Hunter to beat the game; they just conveniently made vampire/shade fights less of a massive pain in the ass, particularly when Negative Plane Protection hardly lasts long enough to justify the negative effects of level drain.
I'm inclined to agree with @Zyzzogeton in basically all points, though I'd still put Cavalier over true class simply because not having ranged isn't actually that big a deal imo. Rest is spot on though.
The point to have a pally, from min/max pow in IWD is to have someone that can dual longsword IMO
I want something that works in that spot but I'm still not sure what will works best in HoF, since kensai>mage will require a lot of sitting and scrolls are kinda meh untill late in the game.
Btw UH and blackguard have they're props and slops, I guess. I like to use active abilities while fighting and uh looks like another afk archer in the whole run, kinda boring to be honest plus the lvl 21 aura is pretty good even if you are full buffed, IMO
The point to have a pally, from min/max pow in IWD is to have someone that can dual longsword IMO
I want something that works in that spot but I'm still not sure what will works best in HoF, since kensai>mage will require a lot of sitting and scrolls are kinda meh untill late in the game.
I feel you. I'm currently trying Swashbuckler 6->Fighter, and Kensai 9->Druid (for blunt weapons). Not sure how good yet, but I really would like a nice dual-wield damage dealer... K->M seems a bit weak in IWD, don't think I want one but who knows. Testing testing testing.
@Nimran Actually, due to the fact a blackguard kit was shown at the same time we all met Dorn, I somehow associate any blackguard with Dorn. I like Dorn's personality so much, I like his style. And I bloody love that phrase from BG1, I miss it in BG2. Liking Dorn, I like his kit and abilities it brings. I like how powerful poison weapon and aura of despair are. This is why I voted for a blackguard in IWD.
what are avantages of kensai\dudu over bers\dudu??
Trading off resilience for some extra damage. This is obviously not meant as a tank, but as a damage dealer. You can negate a lot of the Kensai's survival issues with Iron Skins and the like, and so you end up with mostly free damage. Berserker Rage isn't all that amazing considering very few enemies use the CCs on you that Rage would protect against and the winded period is a real issue in HoF where fights take a long time (no more finishing the fight before Rage wears off like in BG2).
@Nimran Actually, due to the fact a blackguard kit was shown at the same time we all met Dorn, I somehow associate any blackguard with Dorn. I like Dorn's personality so much, I like his style. And I bloody love that phrase from BG1, I miss it in BG2. Liking Dorn, I like his kit and abilities it brings. I like how powerful poison weapon and aura of despair are. This is why I voted for a blackguard in IWD.
I like him too, but I don't imagine that phrase going over very well with romance in mind.
I didnt try all the kits but I did solo the entire BGee with one char. My Blackguard using pots and poison weapon. Endfight with Sarevok was a bit messy but he tipped in the end. Afterwards i imported the char into BG2ee from final save and so far I havent meet something in BG2ee I couldnt solo - watchers keep included.
For IWD:EE in particular Undead Hunter is the best imho. Generally speaking you can never go wrong with a Cavalier. Seriously, who uses ranged weapons on a Paladin?
Inquisitor is the best kit by far when it comes to BG2 imho. His special abilities heavily outclass any other Paladin abilities, it's just that you simply can't put them to good use in IWD.
Black Guard for sure... Fallen paladins are always stronger than normal paladins... They destroy undead as any paladin should... but they also can deal out poison to the living and have strong buffs on top of that. If you have a healing cleric in the party or stock up on potions you shouldn't need healing abilities...
I find paladins super weak compared to a straight up fighter, grandmastery in a weapon is better than any ability a paladin gets. I am playing one at the moment purely for rp and flavor, but thats about it.
Inquisitors are irrelevant in the game as enemy mages are irrelevant. You can kill them very easily before they get to cast anything worth the trouble.
Cavalier is nice but as others said no ranged weapon is a bummer in HoF difficulty, or when you need to do some tactical battling.
Undead hunter is the best for me because of the immunities and the broad damage bonus vs undead:iwd has tons of undead and no other kit or class's +damage vs certain type of enemy is more useful and used than Undead hunter's.
Blackguard, I don't know, I don't have evil members in my party.
The player who hands their paladin a crate full of throwing knives and then instructs the paladin to draw upon all the holy might. Yeah, I know that a fighter/cleric can do high ranged damage with DUHM as well, but who cares?
Jesus... calm down. First of all, I wasn't being dead serious, it was just some friendly banter. And second, I was talking about a role-playing point of view not a power-gaming one. When I think of a Paladin I see a guy with a big sword or hammer who bravely dashes into battle to defend the weak, Blackguards being the exception of course.
You on the other hand are implying that every player who does in fact not use ranged weapons on their Paladin is a retard. That's equally not true and not very nice of you.
Comments
I currently have two parties going, one group has both a Cavalier and an Undead Hunter. Based on their scores, I would expect the Cavalier to be the stronger of the two. But the Undead Hunter just rocks the early game. By the time we get to Dragon's Eye, I expect Magic items and buffing magic to play a bigger role. But early on, Undead Hunter is clearly the way to go.
oh YES
Their Aura is a little lost in the number of AoE debuff spells in this game, especially when all of those aren't limited to 1 per rest.
There aren't that many Mages to poison. And poison on all attacks for 1 round isn't really that big in the scheme of things, especially when this game lets nearly everyone be a Fighter and deal huge amounts of damage anyway.
I guess with parties that are less min/maxed, Blackguard abilities are going to stand out (like they did in BG) but when you have Figher/Mages, Fighter/Clerics, Ranger/Clerics, Fighter/Thieves, Fighter/Druids beside you, another debuff, a 1 round damage buff? Yeah... not really that impressive compared to a permanent bonus damage buff to one of the most common enemies in the game.
And I guess whatever the Cavalier is going to be good against... not really
Personally I'd go with UH > Blackguard > Paladin > Cavalier (because no ranged weapon, and the bonuses rarely come into play, even considering what they would work on, just too rare) > Inquisitor (take a Fighter instead, and this isn't because Fighters are good. But because Inquisitors will play like Fighters pretty much the entire game)
I want something that works in that spot but I'm still not sure what will works best in HoF, since kensai>mage will require a lot of sitting and scrolls are kinda meh untill late in the game.
Btw UH and blackguard have they're props and slops, I guess. I like to use active abilities while fighting and uh looks like another afk archer in the whole run, kinda boring to be honest
I'm loving kensai9>dudu and I think he will be a mainstay forever in my run.
I went with dual (mh dagger) but you gived me the insane idea to go 2x kensai>dudu for a blunt user (with apr ring)... Oh god :V
Inquisitor is the best kit by far when it comes to BG2 imho. His special abilities heavily outclass any other Paladin abilities, it's just that you simply can't put them to good use in IWD.
Cavalier is nice but as others said no ranged weapon is a bummer in HoF difficulty, or when you need to do some tactical battling.
Undead hunter is the best for me because of the immunities and the broad damage bonus vs undead:iwd has tons of undead and no other kit or class's +damage vs certain type of enemy is more useful and used than Undead hunter's.
Blackguard, I don't know, I don't have evil members in my party.
Jesus... calm down. First of all, I wasn't being dead serious, it was just some friendly banter. And second, I was talking about a role-playing point of view not a power-gaming one. When I think of a Paladin I see a guy with a big sword or hammer who bravely dashes into battle to defend the weak, Blackguards being the exception of course.
You on the other hand are implying that every player who does in fact not use ranged weapons on their Paladin is a retard. That's equally not true and not very nice of you.
On low levels this is somewhat difficult but I like the challenge